Brooklyn Rider - Star-Crossed

Brooklyn Rider is playing Perelman Theater at The Kimmel Center on Sunday, January 10, 2027. The concert is titled Star-Crossed, and it's presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

The program works its way through three passionate bonds spread across time and geography. It starts with an audience favorite from the quartet's earliest days, Beloved, do not let me be discouraged, written by violinist Colin Jacobsen and based on the tragic story of the ill-fated lovers Layla and Majnun. Alongside that is Gabriela Lena Frank's latest string quartet, Frida's Dreams, which explores the tumultuous relationship between the Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera; it's a Philadelphia premiere and a PCMS co-commission. The set rounds out with the ensemble's signature reading of Schubert's Quartet in D Minor, D. 810, better known as Death and the Maiden.

Over more than fifteen years, Brooklyn Rider has carved a singular space among string quartets, drawing on late Beethoven, Persian classical music, American roots music, and the voices of living composers. That range is on display here, with the program moving from Jacobsen's early work to Frank's new commission and then to a Schubert staple.

The concert is at 2 PM, with a pre-concert talk by Megan Sarno starting at 1 PM. Perelman Theater is the smaller of the Kimmel Center's two halls—a 627-seat auditorium where PCMS stages more than 30 chamber music concerts each year. It's at 300 South Broad Street in Philadelphia.